Replacement for Palm Desktop?

It does everything I need and want: A desktop app that integrates contacts,
memos, calendar, and to-dos, and provides significant flexibility within and
among each of those modules. (Yeah, it includes the ability to sync with a
Palm handheld...but I never used it, and don't care about it: I never had a
need for a handheld.)

It still works with SL...but increasingly (with each SL update) it's
becoming a bit unstable. I'd hate to boot up one day and find the past 20
years of PIM info stuck in an app that can no longer be opened.

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Nick Naym <nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
> It does everything I need and want: A desktop app that integrates contacts,
> memos, calendar, and to-dos, and provides significant flexibility within and
> among each of those modules. (Yeah, it includes the ability to sync with a
> Palm handheld...but I never used it, and don't care about it: I never had a
> need for a handheld.)
>
> It still works with SL...but increasingly (with each SL update) it's
> becoming a bit unstable. I'd hate to boot up one day and find the past 20
> years of PIM info stuck in an app that can no longer be opened.

If you don't need to sync with a handheld, Apple's built-in Address
Book, iCal, and Mail can do all of those things, and they are well
integrated with each other.

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In article Wnsno.1167$89.540@edtnps83, Király at wrote
on 9/25/10 3:50 PM:
> Nick Naym <nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>> It does everything I need and want: A desktop app that integrates contacts,
>> memos, calendar, and to-dos, and provides significant flexibility within and
>> among each of those modules. (Yeah, it includes the ability to sync with a
>> Palm handheld...but I never used it, and don't care about it: I never had a
>> need for a handheld.)
>>
>> It still works with SL...but increasingly (with each SL update) it's
>> becoming a bit unstable. I'd hate to boot up one day and find the past 20
>> years of PIM info stuck in an app that can no longer be opened.
>
> If you don't need to sync with a handheld, Apple's built-in Address
> Book, iCal, and Mail can do all of those things, and they are well
> integrated with each other.

Have you ever used Palm Desktop?

When I first moved to OS X from (believe it or not) OS 9, (2008), I looked
forward to using iCal, Address Book, and -- though I didn't quite see how --
Mail as a replacement to Palm Desktop. I never got beyond playing with iCal
and Address book: They simply didn't hold a candle to Palm. Palm's
"flexibility" in something as simple as setting appointment alarms/reminders
left iCal at the starting gate. And Memos? There is no analogous function in
iCal/Address Book. I was willing to forgo that feature if I had to...but as
I began to migrate away from Palm Desktop, I felt like I was taking a
significant step down in feature functionality -- analogous to migrating
from a reasonably full-featured word processing program to something like
SimpleText. I finally gave up.

If you've never used Palm Desktop, you can still download and install it
(though the sync function doesn't work and, in my experience, it's not quite
as stable/smooth as it was under Leopard). The last version was Palm Desktop
4.2.1 Rev A, and it's here:

If you can install it and play with it for a few hours, maybe you'll see
what I mean. (Now, if you _have_ used the program, and believe that Apple's
trio of apps is an on-par replacement, then I must be doing things
drastically wrong, and I'd very much appreciate some help!)

Oh yes I have. I tried it out for a few days when I bought my Palm Zire
in 2004, but quickly ditched it for iSync conduit so that I could use
the Apple software.
> Mail as a replacement to Palm Desktop. I never got beyond playing with iCal
> and Address book: They simply didn't hold a candle to Palm.

I had the opposite experience. Apple's apps could hold so much more
information than the Palm. They had fields that wouldn't even sync with
my Palm device.
> Palm's "flexibility" in something as simple as setting appointment
> alarms/reminders left iCal at the starting gate.

Opposite experience again. iCal's interface just seemed to make more
sense to me, and so it was very easy to learn. Mind you, I never tried
setting up an alarm in Palm Desktop, because I ended up ditching it
before the need arose.
> And Memos? There is no analogous function in iCal/Address Book.

Correct, but you were looking in the wrong place. It's in Mail.
> I was willing to forgo that feature if I had to...but as
> I began to migrate away from Palm Desktop, I felt like I was taking a
> significant step down in feature functionality -- analogous to migrating
> from a reasonably full-featured word processing program to something like
> SimpleText. I finally gave up.

Different strokes, I guess. I couldn't find one thing that Palm Desktop
could do that the Apple apps couldn't do just as well, if not better.
> If you've never used Palm Desktop, you can still download and install it
> (though the sync function doesn't work and, in my experience, it's not quite
> as stable/smooth as it was under Leopard). The last version was Palm Desktop
> 4.2.1 Rev A, and it's here:
>
> http://qgf.in/KiyG3E
>
> If you can install it and play with it for a few hours, maybe you'll see
> what I mean. (Now, if you _have_ used the program, and believe that Apple's

Nooooooo, thanks. Been there, done that, couldn't stand it, TYVM.
> trio of apps is an on-par replacement, then I must be doing things
> drastically wrong, and I'd very much appreciate some help!)

It has been a long time since I used Palm Desktop so I won't be of much
help providing a step-by-step conversion process. But if you can
explain exactly what you want to do, many of us I'm sure will be glad to
help.

Nick Naym wrote:
> Király at wrote:
>> Nick Naym <nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>>> It does everything I need and want: A desktop app that integrates contacts,
>>> memos, calendar, and to-dos, and provides significant flexibility within and
>>> among each of those modules. (Yeah, it includes the ability to sync with a
>>> Palm handheld...but I never used it, and don't care about it: I neverhad a
>>> need for a handheld.)
>>>
>>> It still works with SL...but increasingly (with each SL update) it's
>>> becoming a bit unstable. I'd hate to boot up one day and find the past 20
>>> years of PIM info stuck in an app that can no longer be opened.
>> If you don't need to sync with a handheld, Apple's built-in Address
>> Book, iCal, and Mail can do all of those things, and they are well
>> integrated with each other.
>
> Have you ever used Palm Desktop?
>
> When I first moved to OS X from (believe it or not) OS 9, (2008), I looked
> forward to using iCal, Address Book, and -- though I didn't quite see how --
> Mail as a replacement to Palm Desktop. I never got beyond playing with iCal
> and Address book: They simply didn't hold a candle to Palm. Palm's
> "flexibility" in something as simple as setting appointment alarms/reminders
> left iCal at the starting gate. And Memos? There is no analogous function in
> iCal/Address Book. I was willing to forgo that feature if I had to...but as
> I began to migrate away from Palm Desktop, I felt like I was taking a
> significant step down in feature functionality -- analogous to migrating
> from a reasonably full-featured word processing program to something like
> SimpleText. I finally gave up.

You can export all the data as 'Tab and Return' plain text, so it should
be possible to import these .txt files into any application that support
this format...

I'm also one of those who still use PalmDesktop (without a handheld),
and it's still the app I like most when I need a date&time + memo
application, - though it's not as much anymore as it has been now that
I've retired from business world.

I run it on all my machines including my Windows XPPro setup both on
PowerPC and an Intel MacPro, and it's just working perfect, no errors,
no bugs - as far as I'm aware of, - simply just running. I use both
10.4.x and 10.5.x as well on all my Macs - also because I still need
either classic mode or direct OS 9.2.x boot up. this of course is
running on a MDD PowerPC...
> If you've never used Palm Desktop, you can still download and install it
> (though the sync function doesn't work and, in my experience, it's not quite
> as stable/smooth as it was under Leopard). The last version was Palm Desktop
> 4.2.1 Rev A, and it's here:
>
> http://qgf.in/KiyG3E
>
> If you can install it and play with it for a few hours, maybe you'll see
> what I mean. (Now, if you _have_ used the program, and believe that Apple's
> trio of apps is an on-par replacement, then I must be doing things
> drastically wrong, and I'd very much appreciate some help!)

My version is ver. 4.1.x for both OS 9.x and OS X. I tried the 4.2.1,
but found it somewhat more unstable than the older 4.1.x. I think you
can install the ver. 4.2.1 through the installer even on OS X 10.6, but
whether it will be stable or unstable I don't (yet) know, since I'm
still on 10.5.8 on the MacPro. I could easily install it even on 10.5,
so I just ran the installer and then copied the prefs files from the old
Tiger disk so all settings are the same on all machines. This works very
fine here.

As far as I'm aware of there are no real substitutions for PalmDesktop
calendar & notes software - ...unfortunately.:-(

In article tph-64C911.17070125092010@localhost, Tom Harrington at wrote on 9/25/10 7:07 PM:
> In article <C8C2B571.64FBD%nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid>,
> Nick Naym <nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> It does everything I need and want: A desktop app that integrates contacts,
>> memos, calendar, and to-dos, and provides significant flexibility within and
>> among each of those modules. (Yeah, it includes the ability to sync with a
>> Palm handheld...but I never used it, and don't care about it: I never had a
>> need for a handheld.)
>>
>> It still works with SL...but increasingly (with each SL update) it's
>> becoming a bit unstable. I'd hate to boot up one day and find the past 20
>> years of PIM info stuck in an app that can no longer be opened.
>
> Two possible alternatives include SOHO Organizer
> (http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/sohoorganizer.html) and Daylite
> (http://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/).

I began to try SOHO last March, but immediately ran into problems trying to
move my Palm data. There's been a minor update in the app since then, but I
doubt that it makes any difference to the underlying issue (data format)
that seemed to be the core of the problem.

In article <CJvno.998$u9.19@edtnps82>, (Király)
wrote:
> Nick Naym <nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
> > Have you ever used Palm Desktop?
>
> Oh yes I have. I tried it out for a few days when I bought my Palm Zire
> in 2004, but quickly ditched it for iSync conduit so that I could use
> the Apple software.
>
> > Mail as a replacement to Palm Desktop. I never got beyond playing with iCal
> > and Address book: They simply didn't hold a candle to Palm.
>
> I had the opposite experience. Apple's apps could hold so much more
> information than the Palm. They had fields that wouldn't even sync with
> my Palm device.
>
> > Palm's "flexibility" in something as simple as setting appointment
> > alarms/reminders left iCal at the starting gate.
>
> Opposite experience again. iCal's interface just seemed to make more
> sense to me, and so it was very easy to learn. Mind you, I never tried
> setting up an alarm in Palm Desktop, because I ended up ditching it
> before the need arose.
>
> > And Memos? There is no analogous function in iCal/Address Book.
>
> Correct, but you were looking in the wrong place. It's in Mail.
>
> > I was willing to forgo that feature if I had to...but as
> > I began to migrate away from Palm Desktop, I felt like I was taking a
> > significant step down in feature functionality -- analogous to migrating
> > from a reasonably full-featured word processing program to something like
> > SimpleText. I finally gave up.
>
> Different strokes, I guess. I couldn't find one thing that Palm Desktop
> could do that the Apple apps couldn't do just as well, if not better.
>
> > If you've never used Palm Desktop, you can still download and install it
> > (though the sync function doesn't work and, in my experience, it's not quite
> > as stable/smooth as it was under Leopard). The last version was Palm Desktop
> > 4.2.1 Rev A, and it's here:
> >
> > http://qgf.in/KiyG3E
> >
> > If you can install it and play with it for a few hours, maybe you'll see
> > what I mean. (Now, if you _have_ used the program, and believe that Apple's
>
> Nooooooo, thanks. Been there, done that, couldn't stand it, TYVM.
>
> > trio of apps is an on-par replacement, then I must be doing things
> > drastically wrong, and I'd very much appreciate some help!)
>
> It has been a long time since I used Palm Desktop so I won't be of much
> help providing a step-by-step conversion process. But if you can
> explain exactly what you want to do, many of us I'm sure will be glad to
> help.

There is an app that is available from www.markspace.com - I used it
both with a Palm Pilot and a Blackberry phone. It seemed to work
relatively well, and the synch process was (I thought) livable.

Have you tried it? Or maybe it has gone the way of the Blue Chip GM
Stocks by now? (I have been an iPhoner for over two years now so I am
not aware of what happened to then, as I no longer need the app...)

On 26/09/10 5:20 AM, Király wrote:
>
> If you don't need to sync with a handheld, Apple's built-in Address
> Book, iCal, and Mail can do all of those things, and they are well
> integrated with each other.
>

well integrated maybe; but not in some of the really useful ways Palm
Desktop is/was; date/time stamping in notes, auto-attachment based on
name typing...

PD was well thought out, Apple could take a few lessons from it.

Tom, I also had been using PD since the early days; but gave up during
Tiger. Kept going back to have another look (last revisit a few months
ago), but felt stability was progressively an issue. Similarly, never
had an actual Palm.

In article <4caa4499$0$28649$>, 105
<> wrote:
> On 26/09/10 5:20 AM, Király wrote:
>
> >
> > If you don't need to sync with a handheld, Apple's built-in Address
> > Book, iCal, and Mail can do all of those things, and they are well
> > integrated with each other.
> >
>
>
> well integrated maybe; but not in some of the really useful ways Palm
> Desktop is/was; date/time stamping in notes, auto-attachment based on
> name typing...
>
> PD was well thought out, Apple could take a few lessons from it.

Ironic, because the first Mac-only version of Palm Desktop was
purchased by 3COM from Apple as Claris Organizer and renamed Palm
Desktop 2.

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